The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics) (edition 2003)

This one really surprised me. I did not expect to like this book so much. There are many interesting aspects about this text even if one leaves aside the fact that it is one of the first things the humankind has ever written. There are many stories in this epic that were later retold by the Bible, for example the story about the flood being one of the most famous. The epic ends in a very existentialist note, written some 5000 years before existentialism was officially formulated. ( )

I knew very little about Gilgamesh before I picked up this book in the library. I knew I wanted to read it, and I had a vague idea it was one of the oldest works of literature, but other than that, I was relatively ignorant. This edition helped a lot with that, since it has an informative introduction. It's not exactly a new translation, being based on (if I remember rightly) seven earlier literal translations, but it is lovely and clear and also, where the story needs it, tender and touching.

I really love the poem itself. The relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is touching and heart-rending, and the descriptions of Gilgamesh's grief feel so real. It's amazing how readable and relevant it is -- partly due to the translation, I'm sure, but in general it seems closer to a modern reader's interests than other ancient stories, even ones a lot closer to us in time. ( )

What I learned from this ancient epic is how much The Bible and Homer cribbed from it. The entire flood story is here in its original Sumerian form, complete with the cubits and the ark and the animals and the dove.

Also, the storytelling style we later came to associate with Homer is here. I'm thinking about the way Homer would have a character deliver some paragraph-long pronouncement to someone, who delivers it to someone else using the exact same spiel, and so on.

And epic? It's only a bit longer than an ambitiously extended short story! I thought an epic was supposed to be long! I guess back then, when you had to carve all those cuneiform letters out longhand (and by that I mean on stone tablets), anything seemed long. ( )

I liked the book very much, but the audio worked even better for me. The original was no doubt told aloud more often than not, and this version has an authentic feel. One of the most compelling things for me about this story is how it is the very first novel ever discovered and still we humans are the same over all that time and distance. A lovely story. The scholarly afterwords and appendices were not so great aloud.

3/23/10
ETA

I liked the scholarly afterwords much better this time through. ( )

Another of my comfort books, this one is a pure and transcendent meditation on loss and grief. The things about humanity that have come down unchanged through all the years are limned here starkly. I love Mitchell's work, and this is one of my favorite translations. I recommend it very highly, especially during times of trouble.
( )